Star Trek Beyond - Five Reasons You’ll Love It

Captain Kirk and his companions are back for a third time in the rebooted series and this time with Justin Lin, best known for directing four instalments of the Fast & Furious franchise, behind the camera after original director JJ Abrams left to work on little known sci-fi franchise Star Wars.

In this new instalment Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, the late Anton Yelchin and John Cho all return to reprise their roles, with Idris Elba playing key villain Krall. This time the crew find themselves destitute after being attacked by a powerful and unstoppable wave of unknown aliens, who destroy the Enterprise and leave them stranded on a new planet where they find themselves in conflict with a new ruthless enemy, the aforementioned Krall.

It hits cinemas on Friday (July 22nd) and will be out on DVD before the end of the year, but we caught an early screening and have rounded up five reasons why you’ll love it…

There’s a lot more action…

Loads and loads more. If Into Darkness was too moody for you then you’ll be in heaven with Beyond, things are never steady for long, if there’s not an epic chase, pulse-racing raid or rescue attempt going on then the crew are planning one.

Idris Elba’s Krall is a great villain…

Unless you know going in, you’d struggle to recognise the man we know best as John Luther underneath layers and layers of gruesome prosthetics, but you’ll recognise the brooding and the snarl. He’s on top form in this movie.

Sofia Boutella is an excellent new addition to the team…

Boutella is a relative newcomer, you’ll really only have seen her as the ass-kicking Gazelle in Kingsman: The Secret Service, but prepare to see a lot more of her. Here she stars as Jaylah, a warrior who has been left behind on the same distant planet as the crew crash land and helps them rescue their crew mates who have been captured by Krall. If she becomes a permanent fixture (which we’re all in favour of), she’ll be a great new member of the crew...

It’s pacy and direct…

Simon Pegg does double duty here as writer and Star Trek engineer Montgomery Scott and he and writing partner Doug Jung have done a sterling job. With almost all the world building handled by opening movies Star Trek and Into Darkness, this is a more straightforward thriller and all the better for it. The plot just zips along...

Things are set up for a very exciting fourth outing…

We won’t give too much away, but this film really gives the franchise a new sense of purpose and an injection of new talent. The fourth movie is set up to be something special.

Star Trek Beyond is released into cinemas on Friday (July 22nd) and will be available to pre-order in the coming days.